The following is a list of the most needed items for We Care of Chapin: Items needed for the month:
Laundry detergent,
Dish Detergent,
Bar Soap,
Shampoo,
Conditioner,
Razors,
Shaving Cream,
Toothbrushes/toothpaste,
Cleaning Supplies and paper products.
We Care ALWAYS needs plastic grocery bags.
As a service to our neighbors, St. Jacob’s offers the use of our Fellowship Hall, and occasionally the church office building to civic groups in our community. Currently we have two groups devoted to the care of those who struggle against affliction.
The Chapin area AA group meets in the Fellowship Hall every week on Monday and Friday at 7:30PM. They are very grateful for the use of St. Jacob’s facilities and have been a wonderful addition to our outreach into the community.
The Courage Center meets in our Fellowship Hall each week on Thursday evening at 7:00PM. The Courage Center supports families whose lives have been disrupted by substance misuse or addiction.
Please remember to consult the church calendar when scheduling events held in the Fellowship Hall. We want to be accommodating to our neighbors in needs, just as our Lord is compassionate and accommodating in our need.
Thanks to donations from St. Jacob’s Lutheran Church, and other congregations in North and South Carolina, Congo Mission International received $1,100 to provide Christmas meals for orphaned children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These meals are to be served to nearly 1,000 children between the dates of December 25th and January 1st. Three local congregations in three different provinces will serve as host congregations for these meals.
Though the need in Congo to feed hungry children is ongoing, these donations came at a time they were desperately needed. There were heavy rains on December 12 and 13 in Kinshasa. These rains caused flooding throughout the city. The flooding claimed more than one hundred human lives and a lot of other casualties including the loss of much of the food supply that usually comes to Kinshasa from Bas-Congo (another region we serve during our mission trips). The Christmas meals will bring much joy to many children and their families.
Thank you for your ongoing support of the Congo Mission. Through St. Jacob’s hundreds and hundreds of children are fed hot, nourishing meals that they otherwise would not receive. Below is a snapshot of some of the work St. Jacob’s has helped to accomplish in 2022.
Teaching: Approximately 1,000 individuals were reached including: Pastors, Women’s groups Youth groups, groups of pastors and lay leaders.
Freeing Babies: 46 babies were freed in three clinics in Mbuji-Mayi (Kasai-Oriental). The babies also received clothes, hats, diapers, blankets, etc.
Feeding Children: Approximately 600 children received nourishing meals each week for the four week duration of the mission trip.
Bibles: over 200 Bibles in various languages were distributed to congregations in Kinshasa and Kasai-Oriental.
Eyeglasses: More than 200 pairs of eyeglasses were distributed to persons in need.
So who among our church family has made, or plans to make a New Year’s resolution? Resolutions are great if you keep them. But what happens so often
is that New Year’s resolutions last for about a week before they are broken. By the second week, most resolutions simply amount to wishful thinking. And finally, by the end of the first month, New Year’s resolutions in many cases are all but forgotten. Why is it that so many people have such difficulty keeping their
resolutions?
The reasons we make New Year’s resolutions are varied. There are those who make resolutions in order to live a healthier lifestyle. They resolve to lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking, eat healthier foods, and eat less junk food. You get the idea. Throughout my life I have made and broken more of these resolutions than I could shake a stick at. I have never been any good at keeping this sort of New Year
promise to myself.
Other people look past their physical lifestyle and make New Year’s resolutions that might help them in their spiritual journey. Through the years, I have also joined others in making such resolutions. Many folks resolve to develop better faith habits; attend worship each week, pray every day, read the Bible, or attend Sunday school. All of these are great resolutions but, just like the ones that pertain to physical lifestyle, resolutions regarding faith require discipline if one is truly going to keep them. Heading into the New Year, congregations are much like people in that they recognize that some changes might be needed in order to remain healthy.
Especially following the previous two years that were greatly impacted by the pandemic, it may be a good time for St. Jacob’s to make a congregational
resolution. Certainly, we can all look around and notice that we are not the same church we were heading into the pandemic. But by God’s grace, we have come
through the COVID crisis and have the opportunity to renew our ministry with enthusiasm. So, how can we accomplish this? Well, by following through on a few
commitments (I won’t call them resolutions) to grow in our relationship with Christ, and with one another.
Commitment #1 – I hope that St. Jacob’s would commit to becoming a congregation filled with people who are committed to daily prayer. So many churches have what they call their “Prayer Warriors.” We could do that. We could commit to daily prayer
either together as a group, or as individuals and families. In 2023, let’s be intentional in praying for our church. I will make sure the church is open each Monday from 12:00PM – 5:30PM, beginning on January 9th, for anyone who would like to come
in and pray for St. Jacob’s. Let’s pray in confidence for God’s blessing upon us, that we would become a congregation that invites and welcomes others into our midst. And once they are here, incorporate them into our daily life as beloved people of God.
Commitment #2 – I pray that, as a church family, we will experience a greater commitment to weekly worship. If you are reading this article but have not been regularly active in your worship here at St. Jacob’s, I invite you to begin developing
the healthy habit of worshiping God each week and receiving the life-giving Sacrament of Holy Communion. There truly is no better time than the beginning of a new year to renew or refresh your spiritual life through worship and prayer.
Commitment #3 – And finally, I pray that St. Jacob’s would become known to the community as a congregation that enjoys robust and vibrant fellowship with one another. Especially following the pandemic years, seeing the Fellowship Hall
filled with people is a joyous blessing. We have begun making some strides towards this commitment, and everyone I have spoken with about it agrees, we need to be a church family in fellowship with one another, enjoying our life together.
These are but a few items that I believe will help us to rekindle the flames of a dynamic faith following two difficult years. Yes, they were difficult, but they were not so difficult that we cannot grow more spiritually and faithfully healthy. Please make these commitments with me, and pray that God will bless us with His assurance as we grow together in faith, hope, and love.
Grace to you and peace,
Pastor David Nuottila
Read Revelation 19:11-16
If you were asked to describe Jesus how would you? What physical attributes could you mention? John takes up the task in the nineteenth chapter of Revelation. I would imagine, however, that our descriptions of Jesus would likely fall seriously short of John’s. Who among us could capture the true essence of Christ better than John?
Christians are one week removed from celebrating the Nativity of Our Lord. This
celebration lends itself to peaceful images of shepherds, angels and a baby lying in a manger. Yet, the power and purpose of this child is more accurately captured in John’s vision of the one sitting atop of a white horse whose name is Faithful and True.
He commands armies of angels. From his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword which cuts down evil and rules the nations with a rod of iron. His
name? The Word of the Lord.
Our Lord Jesus, God’s Word made flesh remains faithful and true. Christ is the same
yesterday, today and always. He is Lord and Savior. He came to save we who are neither faithful nor true. His mercy is revealed through the truth of his Word and his grace is sufficient in every circumstance.
Turn to the Lord. Call upon his name and receive the free gift of salvation through the one who is Faithful and True, for He is King of kings, and Lord of lords.
Prayer: Most holy God, keep us in faith, that we would be ever thankful for your mercy and grace.
Amen.
Many congregations struggle with decline in attendance and income, transitioning neighborhood and context, lack of coherent and appropriate vision for mission. Time and time again congregational leaders make efforts to re-tool and re-shape the congregation’s life and ministry, only to find resistance to change, lack of commitment and little positive result. One of the challenges to renewal and reformation is our closeness to our congregation’s history, culture and current practices. As with any family system, we can be so involved that we are blinded to the reality of our situation, unable to see clearly God’s will for new direction and transformation.
In ongoing reflection and conversation, leadership of the North American Lutheran Church have been seeking an integrative approach to congregational assessment, evaluation and renewal. Working together, several members of the NALC Executive staff have developed such an approach, appropriately titled, the “Fresh Eyes
for Mission Summit.
The goal of the summit is to involve appropriate leadership in the NALC, together with congregational pastor and leaders, praying first, “Lord, let our eyes be opened!” We then trust that the Lord will give participants fresh eyes to receive new insight and understanding, all aimed at new or renewed direction for mission and ministry as the congregation seeks to follow Jesus firmly and faithfully.
On Monday evening, November 21st, several members of St. Jacob’s met with Pastor David Wendel, NALC assistant to the bishop for ministry, to explore the prospects of our congregation participating in the “Fresh eyes for Mission Summit.”
One need only look around to see that St. Jacob’s is not the congregation we once were. In these days of declining church attendance and membership, the Fresh Eyes Summit is designed to help congregations such as ours take a critical look at how their ministry is going and what key factors should be addressed.
Congregations engaging in the summit look at the community’s growth and other factors, and weigh their giftedness to determine the capacity each church has for mission and ministry.
Several NALC congregations in the Carolinas (including local congregations such as Holy Trinity in Little Mountain) have participated and come away with renewed energy and excitement about their church’s Ministry.
Please contact Pastor David Nuottila or one of our 2023 Council members for more information.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Hebrews 1:1-2
Greetings in the name of our God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — as we look forward to the celebration of our Lord’s birth at Christmas and His glorious and victorious return when the Father will call us all home to be with Him forever!
Thank you for your ministry and for your partnership in the work of the Gospel. It is my deepest and most sincere desire and prayer that this Christmas season will be one in which we offer a strong and encouraging word of hope to a world that is in desperate need of what only our Lord Jesus can give. As you know, there are more
personal messages sent during the Christmas season than any other time of the year. More than 2 billion Christmas cards will be sent in North America alone. There is something about Christmas that encourages people to stay in touch with those they love. There’s also a built-in opportunity for us, during the Christmas season, to
share the message of what God has done and accomplished for us in Jesus. The Bible says, “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). The message of Christmas is a word spoken directly to us from God. It is also a word that offers and promises stability and hope, when so much of the world is hopeless and unstable. It is mind boggling how fast our world is changing.
Many of our college students are studying for jobs that do not yet exist. Not only that, but they are doing so in a world where there is more information at our fingertips than available less than a generation prior. When I was growing up, it was
nothing like it is today. When we needed to know something, we pulled out our encyclopedias and looked it up. Now, you just Google it and there it is. One click on the screen and the information is there. What’s fascinating is that with this advance
in technology we also have access to more relationships with more people than was ever possible. It used to be that your friends were those who lived next door or down the street. You went to the same school or the same church and those were your friends. Today, you can have friends on the other side of the world. You can have relationships with people who live in places you’ve never been and with whom you’ve never met. Do you know what else is fascinating, almost frightening?
In this world where there’s more information available and more relationships accessible than ever before, there’s also a growing number of people — individuals in this connected and “friend-filled” society — who are feeling less connected and more de-friended than they have ever been.
Recent studies have shown that for many people there’s more anxiety over losing a phone than there is over losing a friend. For many, their best friend has become their phone. And their phones are the main and the primary connection they have
with their best friends. It’s not surprising that some of the same studies have also shown that there’s a longing in our society, like never before, for connections and communities that actually care for each other. In this increasingly more electronically-connected world, there’s a longing for true connections.
On that first Christmas, God was careful and intentional in making the connection He did when He sent His Son into our world. And He was personal in doing it because He was doing it in the person of Jesus Christ. He was connecting with us, so we could connect with Him. He was becoming a person with us, so we could begin to see Him and know Him in a personal way.
As challenging as it is to reach the hearts of people in our society for Jesus, let us not forget that the relationship we have with God, in Christ, is the kind of relationship people are longing to find. God came into our world to make an incarnate and
in-person connection with us. It was also the reason, and still is, that God has called us together in the Church. Let us not forget or neglect the importance of gathering together as the Body of Christ.
As you proclaim the name of Jesus this Christmas, and as you bear witness to the relationship God has established with us in His Son, do so with boldness and confidence that the Holy Spirit is working through your proclamation to connect with and draw people to Christ. Do it also with a sincere desire and prayer that God will open new doors for new relationships to be established with those for whom our Lord Jesus was born. Thank you for your faithful witness. Thank you for the work you do and the partnership we share. It continues to be a joy and an honor to serve as your bishop. Know that my prayers are with each of you. Have a blessed and a hope-filled Christmas, [and a joyous New Year] as we celebrate the incarnate relationship that is eternally ours with God in Jesus!
In Christ,
Bishop Dan Selbo
Good Things for November 2022
Reports
All ministry team reports were received by the council. Notes of interest were as follows:
Old Business:
New Business
Pastor David is calling all members of St. Jacob’s to pray for St. Jacob’s spiritual health, vision, and growth. Everyone who is willing to gather for Prayer, or come at a time when you can be alone, is encouraged to do so each Monday afternoon or evening in January. Beginning on January 9th, the Church sanctuary will be open
from 12:00PM to 5:30PM. You may simply enter the nave, take a seat in the
pews and lift up your prayers to our God who promises to hear you. As the evangelist writes in the book of James, “The prayer of a righteous person has
great power as it is working” (James 5:16).
All St. Jacob’s men are encouraged to participate in the first annual South Carolina Mission District Men’s Retreat. The retreat will take place at Camp Longridge in Ridgeway, SC on the weekend of April 14-16. The cost for the weekend is $125.00 per person and includes meals and lodging. The theme for the retreat is “Becoming Fishers of Men.” St. Jacob’s and St. Peter’s Lutheran Churches in Chapin are the host congregations for the weekend. Registration brochures will be available beginning Sunday, January 1, 2023. More information will follow in the St. Jacob’s Newsletter and South Carolina Mission District Facebook page.
